The Dawn We'll See Together
by Hyr'Ayl
Summary: In the first days of Millennium, a werewolf falls in love for one of his companions..... but it's not easy to be together in a world dominated by mad science and war. Rated T for violence, gore, language, adult themes and so on.
1. Recruits

"Would you please clean up the achieves?"

That day had begun strangely. There was no reason why Doc should have ordered to the top agent, not to mention the only werewolf of the battalion, to clean achieves which had been ignored in the last fifty years.

Anyway Captain Hans Gunsche was not going to question that command, nor any other. If he had to do a janitor's job, then there had to be a reason.

oOOo

So he had been working in there for at least three hours, between the dust of the ages, when something got his attention.

It was an old photo album, with consumed edges and yellowed pages, which seemed to crumble under every touch. The date on it was 1943/44.

The last months in Germany. Those months.

He pondered whether it was a good idea to look in it, to bring back those memories. The escape, the fights, all that was bad, sure, but....

That couldn't hurt him. It was another memory he didn't want to remember.

But after all, it was so many years before. It couldn't cause him any more pain...

Slowly, considering every single move, he opened that forsaken memory; he started from the last pages, where at least he knew there was nothing so.... terrible.

The last picture was of Doc boarding the plane which had brought them in Brazil; he was raspberry-ing, below it was written "this is for you, Alucard".

Hans turned a few pages, returning to the previous events... here was the Major shaking hands with a certain priest, here their headquarters being abandoned.... and here it was him, Hans, on that train which brought them out of Berlin, with Rip at his side.... she was wearing Hans' hat and sleeping with her head on his shoulder.....

Yes. But that was the wrong period. Surely there was an album of the year before..... but did he really want to find it?

Yes. He had decided to face once again what had happened, no turning back now. And it had begun in 1942, when Millennium had started to recruit its soldiers. Hans opened that year's album and immediately found that picture, that image which had been printed in his memory for all the years to come. His memory returned to the time pictured in that sepia image.

oOOo

He had already spent almost a year in the battalion, a year of continuous experiments performed on him by the mad doctor. That man didn't seem to even understand the meaning of suffering; his three-lensed glasses covered an expression which didn't change no matter if he was cutting a steak or the skin of a living man. His endless admiration for the Major was the only feeling which could alter his impassiveness. The only thing the werewolf liked about him was the cat he always carried with himself, a black, cute animal called Schrödinger.

Anyway, that evening of so many years before, Major Max Montana announced they had gathered some fresh recruits to be trained as invincible soldiers. Until then, Millennium had been devoted only to scientific experiments and it had few members, mainly scientist and lab-rats. Seeing some new faces was a pleasure for most of them.

Some of these recruits came directly from the SS or the Gestapo, the classical best-in-class soldiers with no experience out of their academy, but others were more interesting. As the Major affirmed, they had been chosen based on their sadism and to lack of morality, and probably, Hans though looking at them, also on some twisted aesthetic sense.

oOOo

Or at least he thought so until he met that gaze. Even in that old, crumbling picture, he couldn't help but recognizing the moment that would've haunted him for the years to come.

oOOo

Her looks weren't very different after all, even though she was much younger. Sure, maybe she was a little softer, and her face didn't have that stubborn and proud expression, but still....

Soldier Zorin Blitz. Blitz means flash.... and it was like a flash seeing her, like some memory long forgotten but now clear, as if something he had to know was written in those letters that covered half of her face.

Right then, she seemed discomforted, out of place, a look she'd never wear again for a long time after joining Millennium, it made her look less like a monster and more like a child.

All the others weren't very calm as well- and it couldn't be otherwise, with the Major ranting about war and destruction. Luckily he seemed about to finish.

"...and this is why, in this glorious day for our battalion, we openly greet all of you! You will have a chance to die in glory, and even though your scattered remains might lie on a battlefield, tormented by ravens and chewed by rabid dogs, the war that pushes our hearts..."

False alarm. He wasn't finishing at all.

Hans lain back on the chair, not even trying to listen. He looked around, pretending to himself he wasn't interested to anything in particular.

But he felt some special bond with her, something he had acquired in a second, unnatural yet beautiful.

The doctors around him were discussing who would take which recruit.... it wasn't the first time it happened, but the werewolf felt now there was something wrong in considering them like livestock, even though he had been considered like that....

Maybe even less, to them he was just an interesting item.... but did those poor guys deserve it?

Did she?

Max Montana reached somehow a end to his speech, to the relief of everyone. Some of the scientist went fetching their pick, again treating them like livestock. Hans saw his own Doc, Napyeer, going too, followed by the ever-present kitten.

_I hope he won't take her. I'd wish nobody to be at Doc's disposal...._

Inside himself he couldn't suffocate the wish of getting to know her... even if that meant to deliver her to that madman.

Maybe it was a coincidence.

Maybe not.

Maybe Doc chose her because he thought she could be useful, or maybe he had noticed Hans' reaction.

All of these hypothesis agitated in the werewolf's head while he followed Doc to his lab, with Zorin at his side.

"We have a great deal to do, my dear companions" Doc started to speak while he petted the cat "and now that we have a new agent.... I think we might move on to more interesting tasks." He laughed, before continuing "I don't know what level of training is our soldier.... Blitz, isn't it? But I think a mission on the field could be a good test. Besides, I can't wait to see.... her."

_Her? Who is he speaking about? _

"Yes, indeed, we might be off tomorrow.... Take tonight to prepare, fledglings." He pointed at Hans' room, before disappearing in his lab with Schrödinger on his shoulders.

Hans and Zorin stared at each other for a few seconds. Then she offered to shake hands.  
"My name is Zorin... and you are?"

Hans pointed at his mouth nodding no, hoping she'd understand.

"Oh, you're mute? It means I'll have to do conversation for both then."

He felt relieved... it had been a long time since anyone tried to speak with him.

"So, you've been here for a while, didn't you? I haven't precisely volunteered to join this battalion... actually they threatened me to join or die."

?

"Yeah, well, I had some... problems with the law. But I'd rather not speak of it."

_Then why would you mention it?_

"So I joined this... battalion... thing... anyway that mad scientist is your boss, isn't he?"

_Yes._

"He seems creepy... and that cat... that's really strange."

While she spoke, Hans tried to read her tattoos. She noticed.

"Ah, right, that's.... a thing I can't live without. It's all the things I believe in... or the phrases I like... or just words. Sooner or later I'll complete it."

_Complete?_

"Yeah, now it's only on the face, but when it's done it will be half of my whole body. Although... I hope your superiors will let me."

_I hope you live long enough to._

"So, is your room this way? Am I supposed to sleep there too?"

_Come with me._

"Seeing the way they treat us here, I'd not be surprised if it was a dog's house!"

_You have no idea...._


	2. Outside

"Wake up! Wake up! WAKE THE HELL UP DAMN YOU!"

_What is this?_

"Are you ok, Hans? Say something... no wait, you can't, then do something...."

_Wait. I remember. She is waking me...._

Hans lifted his head, looking into Zorin's ochre eyes. "About time!" she yelled "I was about to punch you to see if you were still alive!"

_That's the sweetest awakening I've ever had....She actually cares if I'm alright!_

He stood up, still a little sleepy. It must've been quite early.

_Wait a second, how did she get into my room?_

"Ah, I know what you are thinking... the door..... I just happen to.... have found the key in my hands...." she waved in the air and pulled out of her apparently empty fist a key ring. "Just a little illusionist trick..."

_If doc sees she has taken the keys she'll be executed... or worse!_

"So... well... the reason why I came here.... I just wanted to know if you have to sleep in a coffin too."

_A coffin?_ Hans looked at his bed... or to be precise, the thin and ragged mattress he had to sleep on.

_I wish I had a coffin. That would really be comfortable. _

Zorin must've though the same thing, because she changed subject.

"So.... what is that the Doctor wants us to do tomorrow?"

Hans shrugged: _no clue._

"I guess we'll learn it soon enough...." she sat down and made a cigarette appear between her fingers.

_A smoke!? Where the HELL did she find it?!_

"So.... how long have you been here?"

He raised two fingers.

"Two months?"

_No._

"Years?"

_Correct._

"And you're just... just their rookie? You looked like someone who could have quite a career."

_Really? Do I look so good? _Hans' expression brightened.

"I guess you're not too smart then."

He fell from the stars. And the ground felt very hard.

"Oh, come on, I was just kidding" she grinned "You really can get excited for little."

_Maybe that's because I don't get to see a lot of people._

"Anyway, what is being a soldier here about? Is it good or..."

_NO._

"_That _bad? Really? I thought it was more like a..... I don't know scientific stuff than a real battalion...."

_That's why._

"Anyway, I'd better get going, I suppose they don't like people to walk around at night...."

_You could stay a little more..._

"I hope I'll find the way to my room.... or maybe I should say loculus."

Hans tried to follow her, but she locked the door as soon as she had crossed it. He could hear her heavy footsteps in corridor, together with the clinking keys.

There was nothing to do. He was locked in again... just like every other night in the last two years.

But it hadn't been an average night.

It hadn't at all.

And the day after was going to be even more peculiar.

oOOo

To begin with, Doc came into his room earlier than usual, bringing him civilian clothes. The perspective of a possible trip outside was awesome.... especially if that meant spending more time with Zorin. And even though he didn't use that word often, Hans felt he could call her a friend.

"...so, well, I just didn't think I'd have seen action so soon. And a secret mission! It seems like they've already noticed I'm the best at this kind of things..."

On the back seat of the, car Zorin was doing all the conversation by herself, but that was fine. Sitting beside her, Hans listened to her endless boasting the way he'd have listened to a sweet and catching music.

oOOo

Doc overheard their conversation while driving. In his head echoed the words the Major had said to him the day before.

"I have decided you will have to handle the best one of the recruits, the cream of the crop."

"Jawhol, Herr Sturmbaunfuhrer."

"You might wonder why.... but I believe your plan is the one which holds more hopes of success."

"Thank you, Herren."

"Besides, that werewolf you have.... I have some ideas about him. But not yet. The first thing is to value whether your new soldier is fit for our plans or not."

"And how will we do so?"

"Very, very simple. You will leave for mission BVMB tomorrow, and you'll bring her and the werewolf with you. Keep him alive at all costs. As for her...." the major grinned, that awful, terrifying grin of his "...you will make sure she has very few chances of returning alive."

oOOo

"...so I'm just wondering, when are they going to give us guns? Do they expect us to run around unarmed or what?"

_We probably won't need them. _

"But seriously, the cool things about being in the army are uniforms and shooting people, so what is all of this about? If only they gave me enough opponents, I'd show 'em...."

"Don't worry, Soldier Blitz" intervened Doc "When we'll be there, the last thing you'll lack will be enemies."

"Why, where are we going?"

"Right.... Here" Doc bent left, heading to a large red barn in the middle of nowhere. "this is where we leave."

_Didn't you just say it's where we go?_

Doc didn't answer to Hans' implicit question. He just unlocked the barn's door and walked in.

For a moment, for a single, sweet moment, Hans though he could just run away and be done with Millennium, with the battalion, with the doctor and his experiments. Nothing kept him. No locks. No doors. He was fast enough to run away and be beyond their reach before Doc could even realize it.

But.

Where would he go? Where, outside of the only place he really knew? The shattered memories of his former life in the wild reeked of pain and hunger, but he knew he could find freedom beyond his master's grip.

Was there choice? Could he really decide which way to go?

But the real question was, could he really do without Millennium? Could he really face the real world?

_Not yet. But soon._

He followed Doc and Zorin inside the barn. It took a few seconds for Hans to understand what the item he was looking at was: then he realized it was a small, black painted plane. Doc caressed it's wing, grinning.

"Soldiers, take place please. England is waiting for us."


	3. Mission

Flying isn't for werewolves. Flying on a unsafe triplane driven by a madman who finds some time to pet his cat while he's handling a experimental aircraft at excessive speeds towards enemy territory isn't right for _anybody. _

In the rear seat of the Millennium plane, Hans couldn't help but stretching and shivering while he saw the sea all around. If they fell here, they'd never be saved. But anyway, even provided they made it, what was going to save them from Doc?

A distant city appeared in the horizon. London. That's were they were headed. Straight into the lion's lair.

How was it possible nobody noticed an approaching plane? How was it possible nobody shot them down while they flew near the city, and not a single plane intercepted them while they were landing?

The answer was standing near the isolated landing pad where Doc stopped the plane. A British officer, dressed in his uniform and wearing thick glasses, walked to them as soon as they landed.

He shook hands with doc, then said something rude to him. Neither Hans nor Zorin could understand English- but it was clear that the officer was either a traitor or a complete idiot to trust them. After he and Doc exchanged a few words, the Englishman left the alone. Doc adjusted his glasses and pulled his cat out of the plane's cockpit.

"Sooooo..... what are we going to do?" asked Zorin.

"We were hired to exorcise the nearby graveyard from all supernatural presences. What we will do instead, is look for a certain grave and take the corpse that's inside it."

Doc walked on without adding anything. Zorin and Hans looked at each other for a few seconds, then they followed him.

The graveyard was not far away from their landing point.. During the walk they all mutually agreed not to talk- even as deserted as the place was, speaking in German wasn't safe.

This kind of silence was a blessing for the werewolf. Since they could only speak in eye contact and body language, he was more expressive than anyone else. And while Doc led the way up ahead, he could speak with Zorin, speak _his way, _in his word-less language in which he could express all he felt.... more than any word could.

Or, so he could do if she was paying attention. She seemed distracted- not by the landscape, solitary and uninteresting, not by the doctor, who seemed too busy reading and checking a notebook, but by some remote though he couldn't understand.

_What's on your mind?_

No answer. Was she even looking?

_Come on... look this way..._

_Please?_

_Are you looking?_

She seemed to realize. As she turned around, she looked so....

so....

...pretty.

Her rose skin in the sunlight, the eyes, of that strange, ochre-like colour, the tattoos, the slightly reclined pose of her head and the perfect shape of her mouth in that moment of curiosity.

Had any other woman in his life ever looked so _alive_? So perfect? Not that he could recall.

_So what's on your mind?_

She smiled, her lips a perfect crescent on her face. Surely she couldn't say what she was thinking, but maybe she could express it anyway. He encouraged her to.

She shook her head. _Later._

_Later. _It was a promise.

They finally got to the graveyard. As soon as they entered, Doc ordered to lock the gate, then began searching for a certain tomb among the multitude. He soon found what he was looking for. A simple grave, surmounted by a huge stone cross. The name on it was Wilhelmina Harker.

"Dig it."

_With what?_

"There are shovels in that shed."

_And how do you know?_

Either Doc didn't understand the question or didn't want to answer. He riffled through his notebook again, silently.

Hans opened the shed's door- there were shovels as promised. Even though he didn't mind fatigue, the place wasn't encouraging to work in. Not just because it was a cemetery- the air seemed to dense, as if it was polluted by a cold and supernatural presence.

The deeper they went, the more the still air and cold sensation increased. Even though the job as tiring and they were both sweating, they didn't feel hot at all. Hans' intentions of short before were completely drained. There was no space for affection in there.

Finally the shovel hit something hard: the coffin. It took a while to clear it from all the dirt and lift it. They got in in a standing position, then with a strike of the shove, Hans broke the seal.

The doctor descended into the dig, with an expression of growing excitement. He slowly opened the battered wooden cover, caressing it, smelling it. The corpse was almost decomposed. A narrow film of skin still covered the bones, of the eyes remained nothing but the holes. Doc grabbed her chin and looked straight into her orbits, so close that for a second Hans though he was going to kiss that rotting corpse.

"One day" said the scientist "Someone will gaze upon us and wonder, why did we chose to flirt so closely with the death of this world?"

He snapped his fingers. "Soldier Gunsche, take this corpse. Let's return home."

He walked out of the pit with a satisfied grin. Even more satisfied when he saw the soldiers who surrounded them.

"It looks like Limeys aren't so dumb after all." he commented. "Three and unarmed against 20 riflemen. Definitely an interesting situation. If only it could be night and full moon."

Twenty automated rifles around them clicked as their safety was being removed. The English officer intimated to surrender.

Doc laughed for a few, endless seconds. Then he said: "Soldiers, dispose of them."

The werewolf, even unable to transform, didn't think twice before charging the enemy. Bullets flew all around him as he leapt on the enemy leader, knocking him to the ground.

"Preventable. Since their leader is in danger, the forget about us" stated Doc "Although if I were you, Private Blitz, i'd try and be ready for when they'll remember."

_Easier said than done, _she though. Then she remembered of something she had seen in the tool shack. Something that could be very handy.

Hans lifted the officer as a human shield, hoping to force the enemies in close combat. He had acted impulsively, he knew. In his human shape, bullets could be quite deadly for him. And even assuming they'd fight hand to hand, he was still alone against twenty opponents.

Alone.

"SHIVER AND FEAR THE GRIM REAPER!"

_Zorin?!_

Or at least it was her voice. Although it came from a indistinct figure in a black cape, standing between the graves.

The soldiers started. That second of distraction was enough for Hans to take advantage. He cracked the officer's neck and jumped on the two closest soldiers, banging their heads together.

_Why the Hell is she just standing there!? They'll kill her!_

Shots were fired. The cape fell and foiled to the ground.

_This can't be...._

"Oh, by the way- I meant THIS reaper!"

Hans felt a cold splat of blood landing on his left cheek. Beside him, a military was agonizing, with his neck almost severed.

And she was there, wielding a scythe.


End file.
